Clutterbuck's Treasure

Cover art
Title page
CLUTTERBUCK'S TREASURE
FRED WHISHAW
LONDON HENRY FROWDE HODDER AND STOUGHTON 1910
CONTENTS
Chap.
CLUTTERBUCK'S TREASURE
CHAPTER I
A COWARDLY ATTACK
When my father died and left me unexpectedly penniless, all those kind friends whom I consulted upon my obvious failure to find anything to do were quite agreed as to this fact: that when a young man is desirous of finding employment in this world, and of making his way and keeping his head up among his fellows, his failure to do so, if he does fail, must certainly be his own fault. He lacks, they said, either energy or perseverance or pluck, or all three; in a word, he wants grit.
Therefore the reader will kindly understand this about me as a standpoint: that since I failed miserably to find employment befitting a young person of my position, at a time when it was necessary to find employment or go to the wall, I must—by all the rules of the probabilities—not only have gone to the wall, but also be deficient in all those qualities which are most dear to the British intelligence, namely—pluck, perseverance, and so forth.